Gumball hated taking his pills.
The feeling of the pill sliding down his throat hurts. Like it leaves some type of chalky residue behind that lingers him. It has gotten so bad that it now leaves a metallic taste in his mouth everytime he takes it.
It's not even the taste of it that Gumball grew to hate.
It's the pills itself.
Ritalin, as what his doctors call it. It was supposed to treat his conditions… ADHD, was it?
He remembered asking Nicole what ADHD is. She said something along the lines of "hyperactive, always excited, Impulsive…"
Isn't that a normal thing for kids to be? Excited?
Sure Gumball always seems bored in school and never really pays attention to Miss. Simian's lessons. But what makes Gumball questions his diagnostics is that everyone else is the same as him! Almost the entire class daydreams and refuses to pay attention in class, but yet he's the one who has to take these stupid pale green tablets!
During lunch, Gumball would ask everyone if they were also taking the same medicine he was taking. However, all he got were ugly looks and quiet responses, as if it was unheard of what he's taking.
It made Gumball feel like a complete outcast from everyone. Soon kids would bully him and call him names like "smackhead" or "pillhead." Others even made stories about how the only vitamins he needs in his diet are "Vitamin R."
Later on, Gumball would realize that the name "Vitamin R" would just be another name for Ritalin.
It doesn't even stop there. The way he feels when taking them… He feels completely distant from himself.
Like he's no longer Gumball Watterson… Just a body that Ritalin took over.
It wasn't an issue at first. He did notice that he would be extremely focused on the lessons Miss. Simian would be going over and Gumball would write down every single word she spoke and placed it in his notebook.
It was so helpful he soon noticed his grades were improving! A's and B's would stack onto each other and displayed great learning skills from Gumball.
But then they were other times when it would trouble him.
Gumball would… Scream… For no reason.
He would scream and kick things in just pure anger. The emotions would boil through his veins and he doesn't have an absolute clue about his sudden change in emotions. It angered the family, especially his mother, who would detain him until he calmed down.
Once his fit dies down, Gumball would later cry and apologized for his tantrum. But the thing is that he would not know why he was feeling this way. He would sometimes shake uncontrollably for no reason either.
It has gotten worse to the point where Darwin would usually find Gumball sitting in the living room all by himself at three in the morning. Staring at the window.
When questioned as to why he was up so late, Gumball would remain silent until the white convertible Mr. Robinson drives around would drive through the quiet neighborhood and pulls up into his driveway.
And then Gumball would leave the couch and walk upstairs into his bedroom, where he would stare at the digital clock until it went off.
Nicole would pick up on this and would schedule an appointment with the doctor about these behaviors.
Gumball didn't like the doctor. He seemed like the kind of guy to only focused on trying to get Gumball to stay on these pills, no matter how severe the symptoms were getting.
It was always the same excuse:
"It's just the effects of his body getting used to the changes, it will die down soon enough."
It's been about three weeks since he had seen the horrid man.
However, his presence would linger on in the form of a yellow pill bottle.
Three times, Gumball would keep taking these pills. And everytime he took them, terrible things would come.
The endless nights of sleep, the loss of appetite for dinner, rapid weight loss (Visible ribs), the morning vomits, headaches, anger, unexplained fights and tantrums, bullying, stress, and high payment for these treatments.
Weren't these supposed to help Gumball?
All of this, because Gumball would daydream in school.
In other words, he would "remain unfocused" and "always bored."
It seems as if it would be better to be bored and unfocused then to wake up everyday to vomit, letting his chin rest onto the cold ceramic of the toilet bowl.
Everyday ever since he visited that doctor's office, it's always been like this.
Always.
The next day, Gumball would walk into the kitchen to see his mother in complete distress. Having the phone on her shoulder, with her head tilted and pushed against the ear. It sounded like she was having an important phone call with her boss back at her work.
It didn't help that she was chopping up vegetables and putting the chicken in the oven at the same time, while doing the unwashed dishes.
It was time to take his second pill for today, but seeing as how busy Nicole was, he didn't want to disturb her.
Walking over to the medicine cabinet, he dug through the bottles of vitamins until he found the one with the white lid and yellow casing.
Closing the cabinet door behind him, he walked away from the kitchen and climbed upstairs and into the bathroom.
Gumball turned on the water faucet and tapped out one tablet from the pill bottle and closed the lid.
A quick glance at the mirror, Gumball would br-
He looked at himself again.
Two. Huge purple rings formed around his eyes, indicating that the side-effects of Ritalin has caused him to not get enough sleep. Not only that, in the opening of the hole where his head goes in hung low and displayed his collarbone in view.
He didn't think a collarbone could stick out that bad… Even his shoulder had no fat to hide into…
All Gumball can do is observe himself. A pool of tears formed both tops of his bottom eyelids and would run across his bony cheeks.
He hated how he looked.
He looked so disgusting in person. How could anyone be friends with a weirdo like him?
He looked at the pill bottle once again…
Then he pressed down and turned the lid open. Pouring about twelve tablets into his hand and consuming all of them in one gulp.
It wasn't the pills that made him this way, it was his body.
His body was too weak for Ritalin and handled the treatment poorly. Maybe if he just took the whole bottle right now. The treatment will work?! Sure his body would still vomit and react poorly to the unexpected high dosage, but the ingredients will still treat it!
Why hasn't his doctor told him about this sooner?
He would finally be normal and can continue to do better in school without the pills now, since this would "flush" away his ADHD.
His throat would soon rise up again and his stomach would feel queasy once again. It felt worse than before…
Like extremely worse.
But it will all be over soon.
Gumball lunged himself into the toilet and chunks would spew out from his mouth and slapped the toilet water, causing waves.
Blood would follow along with the vomit. He hasn't seen this before. Maybe this is a sign that it's finally working?!
No more name calling at school. No more taking these stupid pills.
He heard the bathroom door slam open and heard Anais scream for Nicole. Why the hell was she getting worked up for?
Stupid brat…
Gumball was still hurtling, yet more blood came out that food from his stomach.
His throat burns greatly. Maybe the blood is all coming from his throat, but that doesn't matter.
He was getting tired. He rested his head onto the toilet seat and closed his eyes.
He was just going to take a nap for a bit. It's kinda bad that once his mom comes up to see the mess he made, she'll have to disinfect the entire bathroom.
Sleep would consume Gumball, but not before hearing the sheer terror scream of his mother.